Putting chemicals into groups

This lesson sequence is designed to exemplify an argumentation approach to practical work, using a ‘classification’ framework.

In these lessons students see for themselves that it is possible to group chemicals with similar properties – and that there are some chemicals which do not fit easily into a group. Students carry out a practical activity in one lesson and in the next try to group the chemicals according to the results of their investigations. At the end the students are told the four main groups that chemists use to classify chemicals and they try placing the chemicals they have been using into these groups.